The time of Trial
by kayfanatik
Summary: Ethan has lost everything that he has ever wanted. Now he will lose everything that he has ever had.
1. The beginning of the End

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."  
  
Rain. Nobody saw, smelled, tasted, or felt anything but rain. The pellets of cold water hit the black umbrellas like harsh bullets, ricocheting off the water proof material making a mournful noise. It was the only music to accompany this funeral psalm.  
  
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil."  
  
People dressed in black came forth to lay unusually bright flowers on the two dark stained coffins. Mournful crying was the only thing audible over the dreadful pouring of rain. The wind blew gently and made the people dressed in black shiver with emptiness and sadness.  
  
One lonely man placed a single red rose on the larger coffin and a pure white rose on the smaller one. He laid his hands on both coffins as though he was trying to feel the essences of his lost loved ones. He could bear no more as the tears fell along with the rain; fast, furious and hard.  
  
"Ethan, it's time." said a distant voice. He hardly heard it, it seemed so far away, so quiet, so irrelevant to what he was thinking and feeling.  
  
"Ethan," it said again.  
  
"Leave me be!" he shouted at the voice, his pain being revealed in his voice. He swatted his hands at the unknown speaker as he or she tried to help him up.  
  
He struggled with this speaker, but he was so weak with grief, he could bear the struggle no more and he collapsed in the outstretched arms. Not protected by an umbrella, Ethan immediately was soaked by the relentless rain. He leapt to his feet and struggled past the loving arms of his friends and family and dropped onto his knees far from them. He screamed up into the rain.  
  
"They were innocent! My wife and child were innocent! I begged you to take me! you could have taken me! I curse you God! I defy you! I curse you!" He yelled. Thunder rumbled the ground and lightning bolts flashed in the sky above him.  
  
"Ethan, Ethan!" random people cried, trying to cover him, to embrace him, to comfort him in his grief. Ethan blacked out from the trauma that he had created for himself.  
  
"God is not pleased.he will seek revenge on whoever defies him." A worried Father Lonnigan stated to himself. "Lord have mercy on his agonized soul. Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be they name.." He started to pray. He knew that Ethan's soul would need as much prayer as possible. Father Lonnigan was right; God was not pleased. Ethan would pay; he would pay so very dearly.  
  
~~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A/N: As you prolly figured out, Gwen and the baby didn't survive the labor. I absolutely despise Ethan in every way. so this is my fic to make him pay..mwahahaha Review!!!! 


	2. Harsh Revelations

3 years after the death of Gwen and baby Sarah: ~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Ethan, honey, what would you like for breakfast?"  
  
Ethan put on his patented leather shoes and got up from the unmade bed. It was 6:00 in the morning, too early to make any serious decisions like breakfast foods.  
  
"Oh I don't know, honey, why don't you make whatever you want and I'll eat whatever you are having." He said with a yawn.  
  
"How about some strawberry Belgian waffles?"  
  
Ethan stopped tying his tie and looked at himself in the mirror. A wave of dread washed over him like cold water. How could he have forgotten? Belgian waffles were Gwen's favorite breakfast food. It was the third year anniversary of Gwen and baby Sarah's death.  
  
"Uh, no, Erin, not Belgian waffles, how about some pancakes. I've actually been craving a nice big stack of flapjacks lately." Ethan said hurriedly.  
  
His wife looked at him with a strange look on her face. Her pale complexion turned red with confusion, her baby blue eyes narrowed. Ethan couldn't help but be transfixed by her golden blonde hair that glimmered, even at the first light of dawn. She was the spitting image of his previous wife, but Ethan had never noticed that before. She frowned but then nodded. "Ok, can I make them blueberry?"  
  
He smiled, "Of course, sounds good."  
  
After the death of his loved ones, Ethan had slowly but surely moved on. He moved to Chicago to seek out a law firm job and was blessed by being hired by the best law firm in Chicago. There he had met his second wife, Erin Willmerman, a top-notch lawyer. Ethan had proposed to Erin a year after he had met her.  
  
Erin thought she knew everything about her husband. He came from a little town in Maine called Harmony. He was supposedly the eldest son of the richest man in Harmony, but then turned out to be offspring of the town police chief instead. He had only a brother by the name of Nicholas Foxworthy Crane who was engaged to Ethan's old girlfriend, Theresa Lopez- Fitzgerald. Erin knew that Theresa and Ethan never talked anymore, but she wasn't sure why. Theresa had seemed like such a dear person, they had met at Erin and Ethan's wedding.  
  
Erin knew that Ethan's mother and biological father were split up, and that Ivy was wheelchair ridden because she was electrocuted and fell off the light house during a bad storm. Erin even knew that Ethan was married before, but it ended mysteriously. The thing that Erin never knew was that Ethan's wife had died, along with their newborn child.  
  
Ethan sighed to himself as Erin left to start breakfast. He couldn't tell her that Gwen had died in childbirth along with Sarah. He didn't know why he couldn't tell her, he just couldn't. He didn't want her to feel like she was second best, because she wasn't...was she?  
  
"No," Ethan said firmly to himself, "She is not second best, she is my soul mate."  
  
But was this the act of fate? How could such a loving God be so cruel to Ethan as to kill his wife and beloved daughter? Was finding Erin God's plan to finally be happy? Ethan hoped so.  
  
"God it smells good," Ethan exclaimed as he breathed in the fresh scent of blueberries.  
  
Erin grinned. "I hope you are hungry, I made a stack of five just for you, my dear."  
  
He plopped down on the chair of the kitchen table. He lifted up the utensils, knife and fork in each hand and pounded the table like a cave man. "Me hungry, give me food!"  
  
Erin smirked. "Ok, Tarzan, you want it, you got it!" She took a hand full of pancake batter and she tossed it toward Ethan. The golden brown batter splattered all over Ethan's blue blazer. Ethan sat there in utter shock.  
  
"I can't believe you just did that!" he said incredulously. "This is a three hundred dollar jacket!"  
  
Erin shrugged and replied, "This is a four hundred dollar outfit, you want to try it?"  
  
Ethan got the point as he smiled and wiped the gook off of his coat and tie. "Yeah, yeah actually I do!" With that, he tossed the stuff directly at his wife. She screamed as it hit her in the face.  
  
"Damn it, I missed," he laughed as she wiped it off her eyes and mouth.  
  
She grabbed a small pancake and lunged for Ethan. Ethan had no time to react as he felt the warm cake fill his mouth. He felt the blueberries mashing up against his tongue; it was actually a very delightful experience.  
  
"Kiss me you fool," Erin muttered as Ethan swallowed the last of the pancake. He obliged immediately.  
  
He was suddenly hit with a harsh vision:  
  
~*~*~*~Flashback~*~*~*  
  
"Ethan, honey, what do you think about these?"  
  
Ethan stared at a very pregnant, but very eccentric Gwen. She was holding up the most darling little pajamas that were unisex.  
  
"They're perfect. The baby will look absolutely dear in those, honey." Ethan replied.  
  
"Oh Ethan, I'm so excited! I can't wait for the baby to come. We'll be the best parents, I just know it!"  
  
"Of course we will, Gwen. The baby will be very happy, I'll make sure of it."  
  
The couple were about to kiss when Gwen spotted someone that made her heart jump.  
  
"Theresa," she murmured.  
  
Ethan spun around. His heart pounded with anticipation as he knew what was coming next.  
  
"What the hell is Theresa doing here in this newborn clothing store?" Gwen demanded of Ethan, like he knew.  
  
"Well, she does have little Ethan," he started.  
  
"Who is a toddler, much too large to fit in these little Pj's." retorted Gwen. Her eyes blazed with hate and anger.  
  
"Gwen just leave it go, ok? Let's buy these clothes and leave. It'll be better if we do."  
  
Ethan quickly gathered up the small clothing and brought it up to the register. He peered over at Gwen who was still watching Theresa's every move.  
  
"I wish she would just leave, why does she have to be here? She doesn't have a newborn!" Gwen muttered to herself.  
  
"Gwen, honey, I've paid for the clothing, now let's get out of here before she sees us!" Ethan ordered softly, his hand out to grasp hers.  
  
Gwen reluctantly slipped her hand in with Ethan's and left the store.  
  
"Ethan, I'm sorry about my suspicions about you and Theresa," Gwen apologized.  
  
Ethan fidgeted. "Oh, Gwen, it's fine." He said lamely.  
  
Gwen smiled and let go of his hand. She gazed deeply into his eyes. "I love you Ethan Winthrop. You know that. Nothing will ever tear us apart, not even Theresa."  
  
Ethan gulped but smiled. "I love you, too." Finally the pair kissed in the middle of the parking lot. Still kissing Gwen, he opened his eyes for a fraction of a second. There standing in the store window was a very hurt Theresa.  
  
Ethan pulled away from the kiss.  
  
"What's wrong, Ethan?" Gwen asked disappointed and hurt.  
  
"Nothing, baby, let's just go." He said. Gwen just stood there looking hurt.  
  
"I understand." She replied. The two loaded the trunk of the car with the purchases that they had made and got into the car. Ethan sped away from the vision of the crushed Theresa. ~*~*~*~*~End of Flashback~*~*~~*~*  
  
"Is something wrong, Ethan?" Erin asked.  
  
Ethan snapped back to reality. He shook his head to clear his head. "Oh god, did I drift away?"  
  
She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, we were kissing, then when we broke away from the kiss, you just got all glassy eyed and zoned out."  
  
"Well, it was just a wonderful kiss, I didn't want the feeling to pass." He lied.  
  
Erin giggled. "Well, I suggest we go back upstairs to change, and then try to make up a plausible excuse to tell the boss why exactly we are late for work."  
  
"Oh god! We are late! Ok, let's hurry, maybe we don't have to make up an excuse!"  
  
Erin ran upstairs, but Ethan stopped. He was struck by harsh thought. He had never told Erin about his affair with Theresa. He had never told her that he had been the cause of his wife and daughter's death.  
  
~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A/N: Like I said, I'm going to make it very hard for Ethan. Please review! 


End file.
